Talk show host, politician Barbara Carlson dies at 80

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Barbara Carlson, a former radio talk show host with a bold, unfiltered personality, has died at the age of 80 after battling lung cancer.

Carlson’s daughter, Anne Carlson, says her mother died Monday.

Barbara, known as “Babs,” divorced Arne Carlson in 1977, before he became Minnesota’s governor.

She became a politician herself and served on the Minneapolis City Council in the 1980s. In 1990, she began her career as a bombastic talk show host on KSTP radio. Her show was known for being outrageous.

When Carlson learned she had stage 4 cancer, she threw a party. About 300 people showed up.

Anne Carlson told the Star Tribune that right before her mother died, she said: “I wasn’t a great mother. But, damn, I was a fun mother.”